July 2007

I have decided that I need a friend named Molly. Does anyone know how I’d go about getting one?

This, my friends, is a car review. It will likely not interest the majority of you but it may assist someone, somewhere out in the land of Internet, in making a vehicle purchase and so I shall post it.

I have owned, or regularly driven, a fairly significant number of cars over the years – from a Ford Focus to a Jeep Grand Cherokee and all the way down the list to the Corvette Stingray. I love to drive and I do it very well, despite my inability to adhere to a speed limit, and a good car only enhances the experience for me.

The flip side is that I’m concerned about the environment, and despite not commuting to a job or driving frequently I still want to use as little gasoline as possible when I do need to get somewhere. I also don’t want to spend a lot of money on a car in general – from purchase to repairs.

Once we knew we were adopting, it was time to make some decisions about our vehicles. We owned a 2004 4-door Echo that was getting high in mileage and which we still owed a significant amount of money before it would belong to us. We also had a 2002 2-door Echo that was smaller (and not so great for kids) but which had lower mileage and was fully paid off.

Our discussion evolved and we decided that we needed at least one vehicle with a lot of cargo space and leg-room for the kids and the dogs and the miscellanea that accompanies most families when they venture away from home. We traded in the 4-door and kept the 2-door for my husband’s daily commute.

Noting our requirements, I began searching the new and used car ads and making comparisons between car companies, prices, options and warranties. Kia kept coming up – over and over – with high rankings in customer satisfaction in the past few years.

I confess: I had a negative opinion of Kia. From day one I was under the impression that Kia was a “cheap throw-away” car and that they weren’t known for their longevity. The cars seemed unattractive to me and, after some time, they fell off my radar altogether.

In more recent years I’ve come to know a few people who own(ed) a Kia and who were extremely pleased with their purchase. I began to research the company and the cars. I learned that Hyundai owns Kia and that Hyundai, too, has been getting rave reviews lately. I found a few negative reviews, of course, but the overwhelming majority were positive.

Earlier this month I purchased a 2007 Kia Spectra5 from the local dealership. It was, without question, the easiest car purchase ever. There was no haggling, just a discussion, and there was no point in the process that I felt uncomfortable or uncertain. We traded in our old car, purchased the new one (with 0% financing) and got a fantastic warranty to boot. EASILY. That’s a strong point in favour of Kia.

After a few days’ wait (for the car I wanted to arrive at the dealership) we returned and picked up the car. No further paperwork to sign and, even better, they had already plated the car with my personalized plates that I had dropped off a few days earlier. I shook the sales rep’s hand and drove home.

Having had the car for a few weeks and driving around, I will say this: for the price we paid (about $27K) it is unspeakably luxurious and packed with standard ‘options’. Power windows, power heated mirrors, mp3 cd player with built-in iPod connection, dark tinted windows, cruise control all make for a pretty comfortable environment. The stereo has pretty decent sound, too!

The upholstery is not the world’s most comfortable, though perhaps it will break itself in and become softer. Right now it’s quite plasticky (which could also be partially attributed to the stain-protectant, perhaps) but the structure of the seats is excellent. I haven’t had the chance to ride in the back seat at all yet, but there is a lot of leg room.

There are no cup holders in the rear which I found rather strange. My husband tells me that it may not necessarily be a bad thing if the kids can’t take grape juice in the car. I’m sad, though, that there are no back-of-the-seat pockets to hold maps or small toys. We’ll need to purchase something from Canadian Tire to accomodate those items.

The handling is so smooth it feels decadent; I can take curves at a significantly higher speed than in any previous car (other than the Corvette) without feeling any wobble or tilt. Not that I’d speed on a curve, of course. Nuh uh. Still, it’s a really gentle ride. The turn radius is quite tight and that makes getting into and out of small spots quite easy.

The clutch (my car is manual – real women drive stick dont’cha know?) is extremely responsive – leading me to some fabulous engine revving the first few times I restarted from a full-stop. “Look ma! The lady in the Kia wants to race you!” It’s extremely comfortable to shift and also totally effortless. It is what my father would call “fingertip shifting” enabled.

Cargo space in the rear is not as fabulous as I’d like but that’s to be expected in a car with ample leg room in the rear. To keep the small profile, something had to be sacrificed. The car has a hidden spare tire and all the appropriate tools. There’s also cargo-area cover that’s removable (enabling you to carry more in the back) and the rear seats fold completely flat after you flip up the seat portion. All told, I’m satisfied with the cargo space but not elated, y’know?

Greatly amusing, to me, is that the gas tank is approximately 80 kabillion liters in capacity. It takes forever to fill, costs a lot to fill, but will not require frequent trips to the gas station. If you worked at it, I’m certain you could arrange to purchase gas only at the times when the price is down and save a little bit of money on your overall costs. I like this.

All told and all considered, I’d rate the Kia Spectra5 a solid 9 out of 10. It’s missing a few non-essential luxuries but it’s so unbelievably great in every other way that I couldn’t possibly take off any other points. Time will tell if it will hold up, of course, and I may have other issues once the kids are installed into car seats in the back seat, but for now I am exceptionally happy with our purchase. Go Kia!

Here’s a confession: I loved high school.

I LOVED it.

The reason I loved it probably has a lot to do with my personality – a bit quirky, sometimes a loner, sometimes sociable.

In high school I had a very large group of close friends and an even larger group of “friendly people” around me. I had several ‘best’ friends. The idea of walking down a hallway without saying “hi!” to at least two people was inconceivable back in those days.

And I was not one of the “popular kids”.

The thing I loved best about high school was that all of those people – friends and best friends and boyfriends – were in one place every single day. We met in the cafeteria before school started; many of us were hauled into the town by bus. Drinking coffee (or tea) and half-sleeping on the tables, we’d talk about what was new or what was happening that day. We’d poke fun at each other, go through the high school dramas and then we’d all head off to class.

We’d meet up again at break.

And again at lunch.

And then after school, too, while we waited for the bus to take us home again, we’d stand around talking and flirting and smoking and laughing.

Repeat the next day. And the next day. And the next few years.

When I left high school I moved to Toronto. It was about an hour’s commute from my hometown, give or take, and that was the end of the majority of contact I had with people. I didn’t have a car and my weekends at home were completely overwhelming. Many of my friends headed off to other universities or schools or stayed in our hometown.

My first year of university, my mother died. I turned into a weirdo zombie who drank too much and partied too hard and slept around rather indiscriminately because I was so unspeakably desperate for comfort. I did not have a clan of friends anymore. I had a few close friends that I made on-campus but my deranged behaviour made (most of) them somewhat leery of extended periods of time with me, I think.

That, and I started telling people to fuck off and stop bothering me during my more morose times. People don’t really stick around after you start yelling at them to leave you alone. Funny how that works.

Living in a house with multiple people always appealed to me – in the same way that high school did. A bunch of people, varied personalities, living in one space and sharing moments but having time to themselves. I loved living communally even when I lived with a ‘roid-raging asshole – in fact, if I had to identify my favourite part of university it would be the moment I moved off-campus and lived with friends.

You can probably credit Chz for that, too, given that he’s one of the few that managed to drag me out of my room regularly. Ditto for Donal.

I was reluctant to join Facebook because I don’t like social networking. It feels contrived (because it is) and it feels empty and I am not a big fan. But I joined and I created my profile and sweet merciful crap people started to poke me all over the place.

And ohmygod, it’s fantastic. It’s fantastic because these little blips of conversation and “how have you BEEN these past 20 years?” are exactly the same connection I felt while sitting in the cafeteria in the mornings or walking to classes. They’re quick and connecting and don’t require a big investment of time – all while making me feel like I’m part of a group of friends again.

My close friends are all in touch – we email or we see each other sometimes or we GTalk a little from time to time – but being home alone all day doesn’t give me those little taps of conversation or friendliness. The cashier at the grocery store is a pale comparison.

I am so grateful for my “new” old friends. For the little jokes and messages on my Wall and private messages and free gifts.. So very cool.

It’s no secret that I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Beyond what you see here in my blog, I mean, and certainly in a more professional and coherent manner. Maybe even with less profanity.

Or not. I mean, let’s be realistic. This is ME we’re talking about.

Over the years I’ve made a few attempts to get my proverbial “write on” but every single attempt fell completely into the half-hearted category. I have never submitted an article to a magazines, for example, despite requesting the submission guidelines for pretty much every popular magazine in North America. The envelope arrives, I read the guidelines and.. well, that’s it. That’s the end of the tale.

A few years ago I took a course that was specific to writing queries, building a story and submitting it to a periodical. The course was enjoyable enough, and I definitely learned a few things, and then.. nothing. End of that story, too.

I love to write but I am scared shitless to do it in any manner other than this very, very, very casual blog. Around here, I can skip the spell-checker and barely bat an eye at horrible grammatical errors. I can swear and use all manner of slang and post photos of things that have nothing to do with anything.

Perhaps my readership would increase if I was able to stick to one topic in my blog or if I spent more time with the post in draft before I hit “publish”. Then again, perhaps not. There are about 100 of you reading this on a daily basis, according to my stats counter, but I honestly and truly have no idea WHY you’re here unless we’re really good friends and you’re curious about what I did on the weekend.

Coffee is my biggest cheerleader when it comes to writing. When I email him at work with an “I’m so bored!” complaint, his first suggestion for entertainment is that I should sit down and write. Something. Anything. A story or a poem or a big ol’ blog post. And, generally speaking, it’s a pretty good suggestion. I like to write. I lose myself in writing, sometimes, but lately my writing has started to lose ME, instead.

Is it my ego that stands in the way of my inner author? I am not so good with the handling of rejection, to be honest, but I don’t think that’s the issue.

The problem is that I just can’t imagine that anyone cares what I have to say. I’m a 32 year old woman living in a small city. My hobbies are reading, writing and napping. My life experiences, though varied, feel as though they’ve been hashed about in a thousand different ways already. They bore me. I am not known for being on the cutting edge of anything, either, so I can’t start writing about how the iPhone changed my life or why the “skinny jeans” are flattering on some obscure body-type.

I am not ready, however, to simply let my dream of writing disappear. Instead, I want to try to reframe it somehow. And I’m hoping – maybe? – you’ll assist me with this little project.

For the next month (August) I’m going to ask you to give me a subject. Any subject in the entire world other than math (because math makes me cry in a very stereotypical girlie-manner that is MOST unbecoming). Pick something that interests you even a little, or something you’re an expert about, just anything that comes to mind. Make it silly, make it serious, make it whatever you want.

Using my mad research skills, I will compose an essay-ish creation and post it here on my blog.

The idea is that I’ll stretch my brain out of this holding pattern of writing about my rather mundane life AND I’ll get to learn something new in the process.

If you’re willing to help, I’ll be most appreciative. Not only that, but I’m offering a prize to the person who sends me the subject that makes my heart sing the loudest – a completely subjective thing, of course.

Feel free to leave your topic in the comments or email me. Either way, we’ll get this party started and I’ll find out once and for all whether I’m capable of writing something other than these little blog posts.

Hit me with your best shot.

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has quite a reputation. All the institute’s dolphins are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. Kelly took this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool.

Why does she do it? Read the rest here.

And then consider that my ability to delay gratification is, oh, twenty-seven times LESS than that dolphin’s ability. Just give me the damned fish.

Of all the weird, quirky, kinky and interesting searches leading one to find my blog, this is the only one that made me REALLY wish I could contact the person directly.

Because OHMYGOD, I have so many things I could say in response to this “question”:

Beagles have a special mental “trigger”

Ha! Oh, hahahahhahahahahahahaha! HA! Hahahaahhahaha. Ha! Ha! A special mental trigger that turns them into drooling, frothing, howling idiots? Oh yes, yes indeed they do. It’s called EXISTENCE.

(Daisy)

(Zooey)

We took the dogs to the Bechtel leash-free dog park on Sunday – even though it was hot and humid – and let them run around for a while. Once again (and totally against her usual behaviour) Daisy happily loped around the pathway. Toward the end she let us know that it was time to go – by parking her little butt by the exit and refusing to move. Okay, then, let’s go home..

They had a very good time despite the heat. We returned home and they both collapsed onto the cold floor after filling themselves with as much water as they could inhale. Apparently water tastes better at home than it does when you bring it to the park with you. Who knew? Today they’re both still sleeping it off. Lovely!

The humans were hot and sweaty too, of course, so I convinced Coffee to go to the Elora Gorge to swim for a bit. We haven’t been there before (well, I’ve been to Elora and the gorge many times in my childhood, but never swimming) so I figured that would count as part of my resolution to spend more time outdoors in KW, exploring the parks and green spaces.

No photos from swimming because neither of us was feeling brave enough to bring the digital camera when we’d just be leaving it with our towels and shorts on the beach. But suffice to say that there was much water and it was a perfect temperature, too. The highlight for me were the dragonflies darting all over the place – some of them were HUGE! – and the tadpoles we saw in the shallows.

Okay, the tadpoles kind of freaked me out. But the dragonflies made me unspeakably happy – as Coffee now knows. I think I said, “OHMYGOD, LOOK AT THAT ONE!!” fourty-seven-thousand times. It was just so cool to see them an inch from my face or zipping past us or mating (!) or just darting around. SO COOL.

And now it’s Monday again and Coffee’s at work and, well, Mondays just plain suck. Can’t we just go swimming instead?

• The sweet, fabulous weekend starts very soon.
• The rats were all (no, seriously, ALL!) snuggly today when it was cage-cleaning time.
• Watching the squirrels run around the front lawn this morning totally made me happy.
• My stomach is feeling a LOT better than it was earlier (and last night, too).
• Akismet has stopped a royal shitload of spam from hitting my blog. Hundreds of spams in three very short days.
• The sunset is beautiful right now.
• I have determined once and for all that I am, without question, agnostic.
• We’re going swimming this weekend – if the weather cooperates.
• In less than an hour, my beloved husband will be home. Huzzah!
• And, relatedly, the same beloved husband has blogged recently!

I heard her arrive – a soft tap on one of the back windows – and I quickly went to the door to see. At first glance there was no sight of her and I thought perhaps she had already gone.

I was hoping for that, actually, not being in the right mood to deal with anything else.

But I opened the screen door, anyway, and saw her lying a few feet away from me – her face pointing upward to the overcast sky, her eyes opening and closing slowly and her chest rising and falling faster than I could have imagined possible.

I walked barefoot across the patio and spoke in the softest whisper I could summon. “Are you okay?” My entire body was tense. She stared at me, blankly, and opened her mouth slightly to pant.

I’ve seen that expression before; I know what happens next.

As gently as I could, I lifted her from the hard stone. She lay across my cupped hands – lighter than the air and softer than even the beagle’s ears – and I stroked the back of her head in a way that I hoped was comforting. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” I hope the warmth of my always-too-hot hands might soothe her.

She moved slightly and she shifted her body and then, just like that, she stopped breathing. Her body relaxed completely, her feet curled inward and she seemed to be even lighter than she had a mere second before. Then her tail feathers expanded – like a peacock, almost – and.. then she was gone.

I carried her over to the garden and set her down in the midst of the bright green leaves – perhaps her family would want to visit, I thought, as I placed her there. Burying her didn’t seem right – not now, not yet, but maybe tomorrow. Not while she’s still warm.

I know, I know, I’ve promised you a thousand times that I’ll update my links/blogroll. But this week, I’m totally going to do it – as part of my general clean-up process. I’ve already eliminated a few outdated links, but I have a HUGE selection of blogs to post.. enough that I’m not quite sure the sidebar is the best place for ‘em. Hmmm..

Edited to Add: I’ve started adding in some new blogs, fixing some outdated blogs, etc. If you happen to be listed, please double check my typing skills for me, ok?